A couple of days ago, a member of the Windows Package Manager team announced that the new version 0.2.10191 of winget will allow users to uninstall apps. The updated version of Windows Package Manager is now available in Microsoft Store.
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Windows Package Manager (which is also known as winget) is a command-line based utility for installing and managing apps on Windows 10. The idea behind this winget tool is to save user's time. Instead of clicking buttons in setup wizards for each app, a user can generate and run a script that does all the job.
You can use Windows Package Manager to quickly install apps using simple commands, such as winget install Microsoft.PowerToys. Winget automatically does all the job for you. It locates the files on GitHub, downloads, and installs them.
Its previous releases allowed installing apps using the command line options, but uninstalling packages was not possible, and required using built-in Windows tools, such as the Control Panel, the Start menu app list, or Settings. This has finally changed.
Uninstall apps with WinGet
With the release of v0.2.10191, you can uninstall apps with a similar command. For example, winget uninstall "Google Chrome". Currently, uninstalling apps with Windows Package Manager is an experimental feature. To enable it, open the winget settings JSON file (you can find it in the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState) and add the following:
"experimentalFeatures": {
"uninstall": true
},After this, you will be able to uninstall apps with winget. Here is how this process looks like:
Where you can get winget
You can download it from the Microsoft Store using this link. If you already have Windows Package Manager installed on your PC, go to the Microsoft Store, and check for updates for App Installer. Alternatively, Windows Package Manager is available for manual installation from its official GitHub repository.
There are also third-party tools with more user-friendly UIs, such as Wininstall.app. The latter offers special packs with pre-set lists of apps for quick bulk installation. You can also create a custom set according to your specific needs.
It is worth mentioning that Windows Package Manager from the Microsoft Store currently does not work on stable versions of Windows 10. To use this app, you need to download the latest Insider Preview release of Windows 10. Alternatively, you can opt for manual installation from the official GitHub repository that requires Windows 10 version 1709 or later (build 16299 and newer).
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This is good, thanks Sergey! Another alternative!